Four Things To Do To Keep On Growing

Four things we can do as educators to keep on growing professionally:

1. Studying a topic for only ten minutes a day can make someone an expert on that topic. Ten minutes a day translates into 3560 minutes in a year--or 60 hours.
2. Read 20 pgs. a day--not just professional material but also recreational books, including books written for the age group of the students you teach.
3. Develop at least one new skill each year.
4. Continually use one's attributes, characteristics, and talents. One of Charlie Jones's seven "tremendous" laws of leadership is Use or Lose. This includes attributes, characteristics, and talents.

Bring In A New Breed

It's hard to improve a school culture without a new breed. A new breed can expose people to new ways of thinking and working. Therefore, when hiring new people it's advantageous to bring on people who are better than the people who left. In other words, the new teacher hired should be the best teacher in the school with the goal being that the school will become more like the new teacher.

When hiring this new breed look for those who will not only be excellent in the classroom but will also have a profound influence on the whole school. Also, focus on talents. Those who have the talent to love students, are bright minded, have a positive attitude, have a congenial personality, have a great work ethic, and have leadership skills will learn the needed skills and eventually in the long run outperform those who are resting on experience and credential laurels.


These thoughts are taken from the following works:

1. What Great Principals Do Differently by Todd Whitaker
2. High-Velocity Culture Change by Price Pritchett and Ron Pound

Lessons from Sokolow and Houston

I recently finished reading a great book Spirituality in Educational Leadership. In the book there is a chapter by Stephen L. Sokolow and Paul D. Houston where they identify 8 key principles that will help leaders lead more effectively. I believe these identified principles are especially helpful for leaders wanting to reach Hispanic learners.

The 8 principles are:

1. The Principle of Intention: Knowing what you want to have happen in a particular situation and also the motivation below this ultimate goal...and then sending this out into the Universe will create energy and attract people, material resources, etc. to make it a reality.
2. The Principle of Attention: Energy flows were attention goes. What you think about, talk about, write about, and do is where you are putting your attention and this attention will act like a magnet.
3. The Principle of Unique Gifts and Talents: You must discover your unique talents and gifts, then cultivate and develop them, and then share them and then help others within your influence and stewarship to do the same. This is a continuing process as you take advantage of new opportunities and learning new things.
4. The Principle of Gratitude: Have an attitude of gratitude towards both the positive and challenging things that come. Having an attitude of gratitude is a form of energy that has the power to attract and empower...and beget more gratitude.
5. The Principle of Unique Life Lessons: Be reflective about all that is happening in your life seeing how problems can be opportunities to learn and grow.
6. The Principle of A Holistic Perspective: This means being willing to see things from different perspectives and helping others to do the same. This includes being able to see how the parts and the whole are connected.
7. The Principle of Openness: This means doing the work of opening your mind, heart, and spirit moment by moment in order to be receptive to the limitless information of the Universe.
8. The Principle of Trust: Trust is the foundation of leadership. First be a trustworthy person. Then start trusting that each person is innately good and treat him/her accordingly which help bring out the best in others and empower them. In other words, trust is a choice you make, not about the other person.

For more information you can visit the website: www.cfel.org